The SIO’s Talk Tuesday Educational Lecture Series

An Interview With Lynn Savic, MD, PhD

This podcast episode is part of the SIO Corner, a collaboration between IO Learning and the Society of Interventional Oncology.  Today’s podcast features Dr AJ Gunn, SIO Publications Committee Vice Chair, and his guest Dr Lynn Savic, Chair of the SIO Research Development Sub-Committee. They will discuss the SIO’s Talk Tuesdays initiative, a virtual series that includes free educational lectures designed for trainees and early-career interventional radiologists.

This episode is also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts!

Welcome to IOL Radio, the podcast for IO Learning, a digital publication that covers the latest advancements in interventional oncology. This podcast episode is part of the SIO Corner, a collaboration between IO Learning and the Society of Interventional Oncology.  Today’s podcast features Dr AJ Gunn, SIO Publications Committee Vice Chair, and his guest Dr Lynn Savic, Chair of the SIO Research Development Sub-Committee. They will discuss the SIO’s Talk Tuesdays initiative, a virtual series that includes free educational lectures designed for trainees and early-career interventional radiologists.

Dr AJ Gunn:         

So Lynn, you're the Chair of the Research Development Subcommittee for the Society of Interventional Oncology. So, why don't you just start by telling us how long you've been in that role and what are some of the main goals or initiatives of that committee that you've been working on in your time as chair?

Dr Lynn Savic:       

Well, I've been the Chair of the Research Development Subcommittee since September, 2021, which is actually the year that this subcommittee was formed. It is part of the Research Steering Committee of the SIO. So, the Research Steering Committee is basically responsible for identifying research challenges and needs of the SIO community, and develop strategies for existing and future SIO research initiatives. And that includes research grants and registries, clinical trials.

However, all of these things, for example, the grant calls, this is ... it may actually favor researchers, which are already in the field of IO, so basically key players. And this is why we founded this research development subcommittee. And this subcommittee will initiate programs to engage those with an interest in IO research, but with no or limited experience in IO research. So, we really try to get new people on board and raise research awareness among early career interventional radiologists.

Dr AJ Gunn:          

So, what are some of the main initiatives that you guys have undertaken inside the committee? What are you guys working on now?

Dr Lynn Savic:       

So, one of our main initiatives is our Talk Tuesdays educational lecture series. So, this was initiated not just by me, but also by the rest of the team. So, we're people of ... or a team of seven. And Talk Tuesdays is an educational lecture series that used to have only a virtual ... basically like a pre-meeting portion. And this year, we also try to organize not just a virtual lecture series, but also an onsite Talk Tuesdays portion.

So, Talk Tuesdays is a free educational lecture series. As I mentioned before, it's designed for trainees and early career intervention radiologists, also medical students. And the overall goal is to really teach the basics of IO research and also encourage the people to really get started in IO research. So, this is one of the main initiatives. Sorry, yeah, go ahead.

Dr AJ Gunn:          

Yeah, no, that's okay. So, with Talk Tuesdays, if I'm understanding correctly, there was an online component, a virtual component that people could attend throughout the year. And you said that you had an in-person component, was that at the SIO annual meeting last year?

Dr Lynn Savic:       

Yes. So, last year the Talk Tuesdays series was only a virtual lecture series, and this year we will have again, a virtual lecture series on how to get started in IO research. And there will be also an onsite component. So, we weren't able to start this on SIO 2023, but we will have this onsite component next year in 2024.

Dr AJ Gunn:          

Excellent. That sounds really great. You talked a little bit about Talk Tuesdays, what the structure was and some of the goals of that. Just to be a little bit more specific, what were some of the topics and speakers that you had during Talk Tuesdays for those that weren't able to attend over the last year?

Dr Lynn Savic:       

Sure. So, as you mentioned before, so Talk Tuesdays is an educational lecture series. So, we do have a course of six interactive discussions mainly, and it used to be between June and July last year. And this year it'll also be in June and July, so prior to the call for abstract submissions to the SIO conference next year. And we will always have pairs of moderators and speakers, both of them will be, or are, IO experts. And this year, we will also have co-moderators from the newly-formed resident and medical student section of the SIO. And then, some of the topics are, for example, nuts and bolts on statistics and R and development of a research strategy. So really, the basics of SIO research, of IO research. And we also talk about different kinds of funding mechanisms and also how to get protected research time, which can be a real challenge in the beginning of a researcher's career, in my opinion.

Dr AJ Gunn:          

Excellent. As I'm understanding this, this is primarily geared towards early career investigators, maybe who are not yet established in their own labs, who are trainees as well, who are interested in interventional oncology research, correct?

Dr Lynn Savic:       

That's correct, absolutely. And for the onsite portion at SIO 2024, as I said, we will try to have some sort of Talk Tuesdays, but put into a 60-minute discovery theater session. And this will be more geared to a little more advanced IO researchers, still in an early career phase, but it'll be on translational and clinical research. So, a little more specific topics, not just the basics.

Dr AJ Gunn:          

Excellent. What were some of the highlights or your favorite topics from the last year from Talk Tuesdays? Was there one that really stuck out to you as this was crucial for someone who's an early career investigator, or a junior investigator? Or, what were some of the highlights from last year?

Dr Lynn Savic:       

Well, we've had many highlights, I think last year. So, I really like the way that the moderators and the speakers-

Dr AJ Gunn:          

You don't want to pick favorites, right? You don't want to pick favorites, is that what you're telling me?

Dr Lynn Savic:       

Well, I can pick an example, let me tell an example, right?

Dr AJ Gunn:          

Sounds good.

Dr Lynn Savic:       

But yeah, as I said, I really like the way that the moderators and speakers interacted with each other. And also, there were a couple of sessions where we had great discussions with the audience, and this is also I think, one of the main benefits of streaming those lectures live, although they will also be available on-demand later on. And maybe one example is the lecture that was given by Joe Erinjeri, who's also the Vice Chair of the Research Development Subcommittee, and he presented on the nuts and bolts of statistics in our... a topic t     hat can be very boring, I would say. But it was extremely great because he used a research question that was actually submitted by one of the attendees, and he performed the analysis real-time using data from his own institution to answer this research question. And that was a really unique way and very entertaining and extremely effective way, to learn about statistics, I think.

Dr AJ Gunn:          

That sounds awesome, but I mean, I wouldn't have thought about it that way, honestly. That's really surprising. And just the idea, I mean, would've taken a lot of work to be able to pull the statistics from his own institution, and I'm sure it wasn't everything, but to walk through it. And I think that those are the key things, is you can ... My experience with this kind of stuff is that you can explain anything all that you want, but really sitting down and walking through somebody's specific question and how to go through the process step-by-step, so many other questions come up and difficulties. And this is why I think this is so important because it helps to establish mentorship and people who could potentially answer questions for everyone going forward.

You mentioned the interactiveness of it, and I think that that's always a little bit of a struggle in a virtual environment. How do you think that you guys were able to develop such a good interactive environment, even though it was over Zoom and done virtually?

Dr Lynn Savic:       

Yeah, absolutely. So, it's definitely a challenge. So, I believe that it was a good idea. It was actually an idea that originated from the team of the Research Development Subcommittee to have speakers and moderators. So, it's not just one lecture, but it'll be a team of people and they will naturally interact with each other. So, this already gives a good environment. Also, people feel ... I guess, may feel more like asking questions after the talk and engage in the discussion.     And then, to even improve on this we, as I mentioned earlier, try to have one co-moderator, a young resident or even a medical student from the residents and medical student section of the SIO this year. And this person will try to also think of a couple of questions ahead of time and also collect questions, maybe from other residents in their department. So, we will have questions that can be asked after the lecture, and also maybe the audience may feel a little more like chiming in if they see another resident or medical student as co-moderator on this session.

Dr AJ Gunn:          

Yeah, that's a really good idea. Just, I think sometimes in big groups, especially when people don't know each other, it can be intimidating asking questions. You don't want people to feel like that you don't know something, or that it's an embarrassing, or question like that. So, I think providing space for people to have those questions with resident moderators and fellow moderators is actually a really good idea. Last year, how many attendees did you have on average? How many people participated last year?

Dr Lynn Savic:       

The last year, we've had over 270 registrations, and we've had about ... depends, let's say 50 attendees at the live sessions on average. But I have to say that one third of the registrations, or registrants, was actually from outside of the US. So, we've had registrations from [inaudible] Germany, China, Saudi Arabia, and I guess that most of these people actually attended the sessions on-demand later on, just because of the time. And the live sessions were mainly attended by the students and residents from the US.

Dr AJ Gunn:          

Yeah, that makes sense. It's awesome that you had such a good international outreach. I was just wondering about that. And then the other question that I thought about, that when you're talking about attendees, which I think is a lot, 270 sounds like a lot to register. Was it a mix? I mean, I know it was open to people that were PhD trainees, but was it mostly MD, MD, PhD, or did you have a lot of people that were basic science? Because I know some people on the committee are basic science researchers, like PhD researchers. So, could you talk about that mix a little bit?

Dr Lynn Savic:       

Oh, that's right. So, I got to say that most of the attendees were MD ... medical students or MDs, residents. We've also had a couple of fellows. I know that we maybe had a handful PhDs there as well, but this was mainly medical students. But you're right. So, I think also one of our committee members pointed that out. We should probably work on getting more of the basic scientists involved because IO research also becomes more and more like experimental and molecular in some parts. So, we need to work together with the PhDs, so that's a good point.

Dr AJ Gunn:          

Yeah, for sure. I mean, there's just not a lot of people that are doing translational research in interventional oncology. There are on the medical side, but we're so much more attuned to the clinical. And so, having good partners that understand maybe some of that translation of basic science research is really important.

I know that there was a process for if you attended the Talk Tuesdays, that you were able to submit an abstract and potentially have your quote-unquote award-winning abstract and have it featured in some way. Could you talk about that a little bit? What was the process for submitting the abstract and how are they evaluated and could you outline that for people that are listening?

Dr Lynn Savic:       

Absolutely. So, last year, we've had one travel award and basically all that one needs to do is attend all of the six lectures and then submit an abstract for presentation at the SIO annual meeting. And as I said, last year we've had one abstract award winner, and this was Antonio from Brett Wood's lab at the NIH. And this year, we will actually have three awards that ... or three winners, sorry, three winners can receive awards here.

This award is endowed with $2,000. And it also includes free registration to the meeting and a complimentary hotel night. And as I said, just submit an abstract after attending all of the lectures and the abstract will be reviewed by the Research Development Subcommittee members. And then we will have a ranking and select the three winners this year.

Dr AJ Gunn:          

It's one of the things I really like about the SIO. I think they are very forward-thinking about this research development. I mean, the fact that you had one award last year, you have three awards this year, you're getting some opportunity for people to come and present their work, attend the meeting, get more involved in [inaudible]. I think that that's really fantastic. So, if you had to say, what are you looking forward to over the next year with Talk Tuesdays?

Dr Lynn Savic:       

Well, due to the success of the first series, I would say with over 250 attendees, 270 attendees, and also, we've had very good survey results from the community, I think the Research Development Subcommittee is now planning to expand this Talk Tuesdays concept to provide an educational platform, I would say, for research at different career levels. And one part of this concept is actually to initiate this onsite portion of Talk Tuesdays, on translation on clinical research.

And in addition to that, I think our Young IO Investigative Fellowship Award that I mentioned right at the beginning of our conversation is also another initiative that I'm looking forward to. This will also require attendance of the Talk Tuesdays lecture. So, they are somewhat connected to each other, but actually this Young Investigator Fellowship Award is also another initiative that really tries to support early career researchers. They need to submit a research strategy. There will be a call in July, August this year, and then just submit a research idea, a research proposal, on a one-page.

It'll be reviewed by the Research Development Subcommittee. And then we will select one person that will present ... or actually, it'll be two people this year, that will present their research at the SIO annual meeting next year. And in addition to that, they will get an award that is endowed with $2,500. And they will also get, and I think this is the most important component here, they will be matched to a mentor with similar research interests. And this mentor will try to guide them over the course of six months, to actually really get started with this project that they proposed and help them also apply for further funding here. So, these are the initiatives that we're looking at this year.

Dr AJ Gunn:          

Oh, that's great work. Really cool. I'm going to put you a little bit on the spot as we wrap up here. For those that are listening, make a pitch to why they should attend Talk Tuesdays, why they should sign up and register. What would they get out of it? You make a pitch to those listeners.

Dr Lynn Savic:       

Well, so I think that all of the initiatives that are started by the Research Development Subcommittee really try to engage people, but not just for one time point, but really try to help them along the way when they get started with IO research and pursue their research, try to conduct their projects, and even get funding here. So, Talk Tuesdays is an educational lecture series that will help you get started and that will also give you insight into specific clinical and translational research projects later on. And I think it's a good way also to get to know the SIO and all of the other initiatives and projects that the SIO has to offer. So, this is what I would say.

Dr AJ Gunn:          

No, that's great. Thanks for joining us today. I thought that this was really informational. Congratulations on all the success that you've had over the last year in implementing this, and I'm really looking forward to the continued growth and success of this program as it seeks to develop the number of people who are able to do clinically meaningful research and in the space of oncology. So, really appreciate you taking the time with us today.

Dr Lynn Savic:       

Thank you very much, AJ.